The majority of people with diagnosable psychological disorders do not receive the treatment they need (US Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 1999). The size of this treatment gap depends on ethnicity, with non-white U.S. ethnic groups (especially Asian-Americans) less likely to seek and obtain treatment than white Americans (USDHHS, 2001). While financial and organizational factors may account for some ethnic and racial group differences, psychological factors play an important role as well (Leong, Wagner & Tata, 1995; Sussman, Robins & Earls, 1987). In order to ensure equal and quality health care for all, it is necessary to understand the ways in which culture influences people's willingness to seek treatment (USDHHS, 2001). The purpose of this research is to develop a culturally sensitive model of help seeking. It is suggested that ethnic group differences in individualism and collectivism explain differences in help seeking attitudes and behaviors. Within the relatively individualistic US (Hofstede, 1980; Triandis, 1995), ethnic groups consistently differ from each other; some groups such as Asian Americans are highly collective while other groups such as African Americans are highly individualistic (Oyserman, Coon, & Kemmelmeier, 2002). These group differences, in turn, have consequences for how people evaluate well-being in the face of psychological problems (Diener & Suh, 2000), the causes to which psychological problems are attributed (Kashima, Siegal, Tanaka & Kashima, 1992), and beliefs about one's ability to overcome the problem (Earley, 1994). Several researchers (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Suh, 2000) have suggested that the self-concept is the critical link between cultural individualism-collectivism and the way which people define mental health and react to personal mental health problems (Markus & Kitayama, 1994; Suh, 2000). The proposed model organizes these variables in a mediational sequence, with individualism and collectivism promoting different conceptualizations of self, which elicit different evaluations of and reactions to mental health problems, which, in turn, predispose individuals to have different attitudes to seeking mental health treatment from professionals. This study will have implications in a broad range of contexts, including medical help seeking for problems of a physical rather than psychological nature. A greater understanding of how cultural norms of individualism and collectivism shape attitudes toward seeking profession help will inform policy and outreach programs designed to promote service utilization.